FashionLande

Please could you email me the photos of your dresses girls i've just ordered 7 dresses from here and i'm starting to panic! *******@btinternet.com

When I saw the mass of comments about this one, I had to go read them and see what it was all about. I haven't used the site myself, wrong gender, horrified at the idea of marriage, and so forth, but I thought it might be helpful to sum up what we know about this one so far if you don't feel like reading all the past comment.

Well, we know it's a Chinese business, and since Chinese sites regard such things as normal practice, it has fake badges claiming that it's verified secure and all that. These are stolen and meaningless. It also uses images and probably text copied from other sites, to disguise the fact that what you see isn't what you get.

Delivery times are erratic and entirely unpredictable, so it's unwise to plan the wedding date before you get the dress.

This all tends to suggest we're looking at a very small business in China, hiding behind a fancy website which is largely made from other people's bits and pieces and topped off with a number of, how shall we say, false statements. For all I know it could be a family working from home. It certainly isn't one of the world's biggest bridal stores.

But, and surprisingly, they do seem to deliver. You don't get what you expected, but you do get something, and if you're lucky, it's a success and you look great in it. At worst, it doesn't fit and is nothing like the photo they used. In the vast majority of cases, it arrives up to many weeks beyond the predicted delivery time.

So you really need to look at this one with your eyes opened. It doesn't appear to be a scam, as such, which makes it better than most Chinese sites straight away. Occasionally, you get what you paid for first time around, if rather overdue. You must ask yourself, is this what you came to the site for? Is the value of what you really get, still going to be good enough despite any problems it might have? Knowing what you know, do you still want to stop here or shop around? Remember you're asking for something to be custom-made without the maker being able to try it on you or see you in it, or even show you how it's going along.

There are lots of great comments here and you'll find girls who have photos of themselves in the dresses they did get, and tales of the ones that didn't work out. Just don't forget the real nature of the business. An impressive website doesn't mean anything, especially in a country where the standards of manufacture aren't known to be impressive and it's good business to tell a few little tales, here and there.